Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Why Do Shoelaces Come Untied?

Something bothered Oliver
O’Reilly. Specifically, he was bothered
that his shoelaces always came untied when he went out running. O’Reilly, a professor of mechanical
engineering with the University of California, Berkeley, decided to conduct an
in-depth study to figure out why his shoelaces came untied when he went running.

Using a high-speed camera
and a study co-author (Christine Gregg) as the runner, they filmed actual knots
untying. Eventually, the researchers
conducted studies on a pendulum that mimicked the stride of a runner. This kind of controlled study (pun intended)
added weight to their work.

Okay, I am going to tell
you what the researchers discovered. Try
to keep up with me on this part. I will
put this in plain English to help. Here
is what the researchers figured out: Shoelaces come untied because the laces
are flopping around.

Holy wow!

Who knew?

Upon finishing their
study, the researchers published a paper.
The paper includes actual photographs of shoelaces, some stuff about
inertia and gravity, and shoes.

I read about this study with
great fascination, but in the end wondered: Why didn’t Oliver’s mother teach
him to tie a double-knot so his laces won’t come untied?